Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Units Program: all
Education, Research and Technical Assistance for Managing Our Natural Resources

Understanding habitat selection is critical in habitat prioritization for species of conservation and management concern. Information on habitat selection is particularly important for grassland bird species whose populations have suffered steep declines over the last few decades. We used the ring-necked pheasant (Phasianus colchicus, hereafter, pheasant) as a model organism for understanding habitat selection by a grassland bird in a dynamic agricultural landscape. Population dynamics of pheasants are partially related to nest survival, which may be influenced by the quality of nesting habitat. Consequently, knowledge of vegetation composition and structural characteristics associated with the selection and survival of nests would help inform management decisions to improve nest success. We monitored nests from 103 radio-collared pheasants inhabiting an agricultural landscape in South Dakota from 2017–2019 to determine the effect of landscape composition and configuration on nest-site selection and nest survival. We explored nest-site selection at two orders of selection: resource selection within home range (3^rd order) and selection of specific resource items from a resource patch (4^th order). At the microhabitat (local vegetation characteristics) scale, pheasants tended to select for taller vegetation and greater percent grass cover than at paired random sites. At the macrohabitat (landscape composition and configuration) scale, pheasants selected for landscape with more area and higher number of grassland patches for their nest site. Connectivity of row crop patches was negatively associated with daily nest survival. We also evaluated factors affecting pheasant brood-site selection. Our results demonstrated a positive influence of arthropod biomass and shape of grassland patches on brood-site selection. The probability of brood-site selection also increased with low number of row crop patches in the landscape. Weather played a crucial role in driving nest survival. Our results indicated that consideration of local weather conditions and regional variation in habitat can inform habitat management for pheasants. Pheasant populations may benefit from research that identifies thermal landscapes and land management techniques (e.g., prescribed fire and grazing) that promote cooler microclimates for nesting and brood-rearing activities.